Publications by authors named "Uma Kandasarma"
Non-invasive strategies that can identify oral malignant and dysplastic oral potentially-malignant lesions (OPML) are necessary in cancer screening and long-term surveillance. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be a rapid, real time and non-invasive imaging method for frequent patient surveillance. Here, we report the validation of a portable, robust OCT device in 232 patients (lesions: 347) in different clinical settings.
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- Early detection of oral cancer requires a minimally invasive diagnostic tool for effective screening, and this study evaluates a tele-cytology system combined with an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) for improved diagnosis of potentially malignant oral lesions.
- The portable, tablet-based tele-cytology platform, Cellscope, demonstrated an accuracy of 84-86% in detecting oral lesions, with improvements seen when integrating image processing and a risk stratification model, resulting in a significant increase in sensitivity for malignant lesions to 93%.
- This research highlights the potential of tele-cytology and ANN-based analysis as valuable tools for remote, accurate diagnosis and early screening of oral cancer, making it a promising Point-of-Care solution.
Oral cancer is the most common type of cancer among men in India and other countries in South Asia. Late diagnosis contributes significantly to this mortality, highlighting the need for effective and specific point-of-care diagnostic tools. The same regions with high prevalence of oral cancer have seen extensive growth in mobile phone infrastructure, which enables widespread access to telemedicine services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: To determine the effectiveness of a mobile phone-based remote oral cancer surveillance program (Oncogrid) connecting primary care dental practitioners and frontline health care workers (FHW) with oral cancer specialists.
Methods: The study population (N = 3,440) included a targeted cohort (n = 2,000) and an opportunistic cohort (n = 1,440) screened by FHW and dental professionals, respectively. The authors compared the screening efficacy in both groups, with specialist diagnosis considered the reference standard.